Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are available in a remote location and accessible over a network, such as the Internet. In a computing environment with many computing devices, such as a virtual server or cloud computing environment with many server computers, the use of computing resources can provide a number of advantages including cost advantages and/or the ability to adapt rapidly to changing computing resource needs. Additionally, secure communications in the cloud computing environment are an important consideration as they ensure authentication of the communicating parties, as well as integrity and security of the communication itself. However, the setup of secure communications can be a difficult task for the communicating parties in the cloud computing environment.
For example, entity authentication within the cloud computing environment may be based on digital certificates, which may have to be issued to multiple parties. The digital certificates are typically issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) in exchange for a fee and after the CA has completed an extensive and time-consuming authentication process. Once issued, the digital certificates can be used without any additional interaction with (or authentication by) the CA, which, in the case of extended validation certificates, can be a long period of time. Therefore, not only is the process of obtaining digital certificates time-consuming, but issuing certificates for an extended period of time may lead to unauthorized use of the certificates causing security breaches in the cloud computing environment.